Let the dream become your reality.

Archive for February, 2011

I really like this movie because of the authentic feel. The atmosphere presented in this film is very warm and welcoming and the set design is brilliant. There are also a lot of incredibly true commentaries on the life of an average family. There are awkward moments, overdramatic reactions, silent moments of hurt, and true feelings. I do like the reality and the authenticity of it. However, there is a huge gap of morality and authenticity in this film, in my opinion. I have a huge problem with the fact that after the brother realizes that Dan and Marie are together, and Dan is back at the house, everyone supports Dan in going after her!! I mean goodness!! They didn’t even wait very long for that! And they just said “Yeah go get her!” and everyone was smiling and fine and then WOOO they get married! But my thought is “Wait a second! What the hell?? What about the brother?!” It’s like they all forgot about the awkwardness and horribleness that would ensue after Marie was around with Dan and NOT Mitch. I mean…Mitch was IN LOVE with Marie. And they’re just going to rub it in his face forever. Oh but that’s right! Mitch just replaces Marie with the young and beautiful Ruthie. Easy as pie. It’s as if he can throw away his love for Marie and live happily ever after with Ruthie. I just feel like that’s hardly fair to his character. He clearly held every bit of admiration and love for Marie, but since Dan loved her and Marie loved Dan, he just FORGETS when everyone else decides “Just go get her, Dan!” Because you know what Mitch probably said? “Oh yeah go get her! I can replace her with this hot babe.” I just felt like the response of the family was really unrealistic and unfair to Mitch.

I enjoyed this project quite a bit. I had trouble coming up with ideas that fit with the size I decided on (approximately the size of a button), but I eventually came up with enough ideas. I had fun making sure the size of the person was consistent through all the pictures. Overall, it helped me be more creative and get some practice with body positions as well.

A history lesson by Rosemary Duselis.
Written by Rosemary Duselis
Picture collaboration by Rosemary Duselis & myself

Did you know that it is illegal to enter the house of parliament in a suit of armor? It’s true. It’s been scientifically proven that this is because people used to smuggle dragons into parliament. People did this because the vote of anybody who was eaten by a dragon automatically became the vote of the dragon owner’s choosing. It was like a cruel game of reversi.

For example, World War II originally wasn’t going to be fought, but then Winston Churchill’s dragon ate the Duke of Kensington and the duke became a swing vote. The king of England was all like, “Damn it Winston! I’m sick and fucking tired of your BULLSHIT!” because he was indeed sick and fucking tired of being subject to the most powerful dragon’s appetite, a dragon which wasn’t even supposed to be in fucking Parliamet. Also, he made his statement more like this:

“I’m s-s-s-ick and FUCKing t—–IRED of y-y-your BULLSHIT!” because he had a speech impediment, and he was facing a dragon controlled by a dickhead.

This week, my friends and I were talking about old cartoons versus new cartoons. The show Hey Arnold! came up and I didn’t really remember liking the show. I know that I watched it as a kid, but I wasn’t really a fan for some reason. Perhaps it was Harold, the typical obnoxious fat stupid character who chanted idiotic things at anyone who passed by. But whatever the reason, I wasn’t a big fan of the show and didn’t pay attention much. My friends, on the other hand, loved the show and decided to watch it. So, we sat there for a few hours watching Hey Arnold!, and I realized that the show was actually pretty awesome. There was a lot of social commentary in the show. There were also a lot of jokes that were definitely meant for adults. My favorite was an exchange between Arnold and his grandfather:

That was just so awesome! Because kids would never have understood that reference. That was DEFINITELY for the adults. And the more we watched the show, the more adult references we noticed. There’s also a unique social basis for the show’s overall environment. They seem to live in an urban area where the money isn’t so hot, but it’s also not too bad either. And Arnold lives with his Grandparents who live in a boarding home. It’s just all very interesting. I also found that Arnold’s character was one very different from most cartoon characters. Arnold is probably the most passive main character I’ve ever seen in a cartoon, especially on 90’s Nickelodeon. He was always very calm and didn’t seem to get riled up too often (except when he lost his hat of course). But that seemed to me an interesting element that not many shows can claim to have: a passive main character.
Overall, I now think that the show is pretty good. And, considering my younger sister Madison reminds me a lot of Helga, I may introduce the show to her, just for kicks and giggles. But, if you haven’t watched Hey Arnold! in your teen/adult years, I would highly recommend it to you now.

P.S. Fun Fact: he was never wearing a kilt. It’s the bottom of his shirt! :O

This weekend, I went to see the movie The Social Network at the IMU. I saw the movie with my friends and I found that I was definitely the business major of the group, loving the quick-witted dialogue exchanged between characters despite the fact that all of those characters were complete assholes. I do not particularly like the overall characters of those kinds of people in the real world, but, at the same time, their sharp tongues and quick minds are unavoidably admirable to me. I found that the movie characters failed to impress my friends as much. One of my good friends, Ryan, could not bring himself to like the characters or the movie that much because everyone was so backhanded and rude. He found the characters to be so lacking in admirable qualities that he could not quite see the impressive nature of their characters. I liked that Ryan had this opinion, though I personally could not be more impressed with some of the comments that Mark Zuckerberg’s character was making throughout the entire movie. But, as I stated before, I am a business major and a social butterfly who can appreciate (on what is probably considered a superficial level) the strong verbal exchanges in this movie because I am always striving to have such quick wit in my everyday life. Most of my friends are already rather quick-witted so perhaps that is why they were not particularly impressed with the dialogue in this movie.

On a completely different note, my good friend, Alan, informed me that the majority of this movie was from Eduardo’s perspective. Supposedly, Mark Zuckerberg refused to give his take on the story, as he did not really want the movie to be made. This definitely explains a lot about some of the unanswered questions in the movie. Eduardo was made out to be the hero in a way, the one who was justified in all his actions. We also don’t know exactly why his share of the company was reduced to .03%, which makes me think that Eduardo was leaving out details that would reveal his own fault in the issue. This also explains why Mark Zuckerberg was portrayed as obsessive when it came to Shawn Parker (who was also portrayed as a complete jerk), as Eduardo would have seen it that way.